Business Website Tips: What to Do Next Once Your Site is Live

With most businesses going digital these days, having a website is imperative since this is one of the top sales and traffic sources. But there’s one mistake that businesses overlook once their website is up. They thought that having a website and social media was enough. Although marketing on Facebook, Instagram and other social media sites work well, there’s still a lot of work to do. 

Once a website is done, one thing that owners need to do is implement SEO. Promoting the business in social media and even reaching out to blogs are also part of the process. Here are the things that you can do once your website is live:

1. Make an opt-in page for your visitors. Even if they don’t end up on your site again, an email list can help you stay connected with your visitors. Utilize one of the pre-designed opt-in boxes on your site that comes with a service such as MailChimp or AWeber. Consider offering visitors an incentive to subscribe, such as offering a free eBook or guide that provides valuable information for your audience.
2. Create an XML sitemap. Sitemaps are XML formatted documents that list your website’s pages and posts to search engines. It enables Google to crawl your site more efficiently, meaning your content may be indexed faster. Installing Google XML Sitemaps on a WordPress site is easy. Using an XML sitemap generator on any other platform allows you to easily create and upload a sitemap (e.g., www.yoursite.com/sitemap.xml).
3. Connect Google Analytics. You must know exactly how many visitors you are getting to your site and where they are coming from, considering the time and effort you’re putting into promoting it. Your free Google Analytics online dashboard will show you which strategies work and which doesn’t. Aside from knowing how many visitors are going to your website, 
4. Add to Google Search Console. It provides you tools to manage the state of your site’s relationship with search engines through Google Search Console. Your site will be notified if Google finds any issues with it. Following a site verification, you can obtain links pointing to your site. You can also check if your site has been hit with manual actions (penalties) and if there is a problem with Google accessing certain sections of your website.
5. Write content. It is wise to prepare 3 to 10 articles before launching your website. This way, you already have consistent blog posts that you can add to your site for a few weeks or months. When writing, make sure that you consider your target audience. See to it that the content is related to your business, product or services. Look for keywords that you want to target.
6. Implement SEO. You don’t have to be an SEO expert in order to do this. Determine the keywords you want for your website and use that to optimize pages and blog content. Start building links to your site through guest posting or even sharing relevant posts on forums and on social media. If you do not know how to do this and you need help, contact an SEO service like WebsiteFix to help you rank your website. When you implement SEO, you will get more traffic, booked calls, and sales organically.
7. Get social. Create social media accounts like Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Instagram. Share your content there so people can engage with it. Also, use it as an opportunity to communicate with your audience and build trust. You can even start promoting and talking about your product or service on these platforms.

Related: 8 Easy steps to start a blog

Yes, you don’t sit pretty and wait for miracles to happen once your website is live. You need to do all these so you can maximize your business website and actually start doing “business.” Most of these tasks can be done quickly, but you can always ask for help or hire someone to do it for you if you think these are too hard for you.